Something unexpected is happening in Europe. Signs of a re-awakening of the Christian faith are slowly cropping up.

BY The Editors

April 8-14, 2007 Issue |
Posted 4/3/07 at 10:00 AM

Something
unexpected is happening in Europe. Signs of a re-awakening of the Christian
faith are slowly cropping up. We have been reporting on the phenomenon, in bits
and pieces, all year.

We covered the increase in female
religious vocations in Italy. We summarized an article in the German magazine Der
Spiegel headlined “Religion, Born Again.” The article made its case from a worldwide
perspective, but added that “there are signs that faith in God” is growing
“even” in the West.

In an astonishing article in the Weekly
Standard, Joshua Livestro wrote about the revival of Christianity in
thoroughly secularized Holland. He quoted a book by “professional
trend-watcher” Adjiedj Bakas and Minne Buwalda, who predict: “Throughout
Western Europe, and also in Holland, liberal Protestantism is in its death
throes. It will be replaced by a new orthodoxy.”

Christian books are selling well in
Holland, and a prayer-in-the-workplace movement has been surprisingly popular.
Crucifixes have been re-introduced to Catholic schools, and school Masses which
were formerly empty are now packed.

So far, all this shows is that there
is significant anecdotal evidence that there is reason to hope. There is no
evidence of a massive religious revival. But even signs of hope have been rare
in Europe.

So what has happened? What has
changed? There are several possible factors.

One factor: the blurring of borders
by the European Union and the media revolution. National identity is important
to shaping personal identity. Scularized nations produced secular citizens. But
with the decline of nationalism in Europe, a new generation has arisen — a
generation less tied to national identity, and more open to suggestions about
what to believe.

Islamic extremism is another
possible reason for a return to Christianity. Violence on European soil may
have made the continent view its own future with more caution: The Danish
cartoon riots, the Paris car-burning sprees, the Madrid and London train bombings,
the violence after the Pope spoke in Regensburg, Germany.

Islam itself isn’t the problem. An
extremist brand of Islam is. But as more immigrants fill Europe from Islamic
backgrounds, that distinction is often lost on the natives. Many merely see
their way of life disappearing. Some may search their own religious roots in
response.

But even that is not the major
factor.

Any analysis of the growth of
Christianity in Europe would have to acknowledge the spiritual leader of Europe
for nearly 30 years, Pope John Paul II — and his close friend and successor,
Pope Benedict XVI.

It was John Paul’s stated desire to
lead the West back to its Christian roots. That’s what he meant by “the new
evangelization.”

John Paul left behind him the seeds
of a religious revival: The Catechism of the Catholic Church, the Jubilee Year,
the wildfire growth of the movements he encouraged within the Church, the World
Youth Days, the Year of the Rosary (and the growth in personal prayer), the
Year of the Eucharist (and the growth in adoration), and, after his death, the
Synod on the Eucharist, a roots-up revamping of the Mass.

Instead of delineating and
denouncing the darkness, he lit candles whose light is impossible to ignore.

He also had a direct affect on
Europe by the way he revitalized the faith of the Polish people.

“In the midst of a continent that
suffers from priest shortages,” said one British newspaper, “Poland is the only
country in Europe that is overflowing with priests” — priests who,
increasingly, are being sent to churches in other countries. News reports show
how British churches that were empty a short time ago are now filling up with
Polish immigrants.

Even in Germany, which didn’t have
Poland’s Catholic background, the fact that the new Pope is dynamic, courageous
and German is having an effect.

The success of Pope Benedict’s World
Youth Day in Cologne, and September trip to Germany, caught his home country by
surprise. A German newspaper called him “The Pope of Hope.”